Harir held tight to the saddle as Sliet wheeled them around. "It's a secondary company... why... out here in the middle of winter..." He said under his breath, watching them as best he could as she moved on. There was hundreds more than normal, and from what he could tell a very large portion of them where Mercy Corps- criminals pushed through into the forces. Had the whole army been deployed?They were spread out, many on horses leaving the v -shaped spikes. Were they combing the area? They could only be going after settlements or trying to track down people on the move. "Hurry- they're spread out- If we don't go quickly, we'll be caught in one of the loops."

Sliet nodded, chirping and digging her heels into the horses sides, stormflame drastically picking up speed in response. She didn't need to be told twice. Stormflame was fast, but there were so many of them, and she was growing unsure as to whether or not they could get around or not. She slowed slightly, just enough to look in either direction, the mass of soldiers stretching on as far as she could see. Damn it, where had they all come from. They were going to get caught or killed or both unless. .. maybe. .. "hold on." Sliet growled, tugging on the right rein until they were moving full speed straight for the line.

Harir remained silent as Sliet tried to figure a way around. He wasn't certain himself what to do other than head in the other direction, but figured Sliet had the reins and would know what to do, but then she did the opposite of what seemed the best option. "Sliet?!" He shouted as the wind whipped away his voice as she rushed the horse forward. Unable to hang on to the saddle lightly anymore, he clung to Sliet for dear life. He heard soldiers cry out alerts as the horse charged into the ranks. Most scattered out of the way in fear of the deturmined animal before regrouping.He heard the first gunshots go off and grit his teeth in worry as the horse struggled through the line. Move, move!

Sliet leaned forward ayainst the horses neck in an attempt to make a smaller target, extremely grateful now for the unreliability of the militaries weapons as well as the mercy corps general lack of aim. She did however feel one stray bullet graze her cheek, and she cried out a bit as another hit just above her left elbow. Desperate, she spread her pale hand out flat against the horses shoulder, trying to convey just how serious this situation really was with several graphic images. The result was nearly instant, his movements becoming noticeably faster and more erratic before finally breaking through. She felt stormflames strides get longer as they broke away, even as she eased up on him a bit. She forced hrself to keep her eyes forward, making sure they didn't slow down for anything, making sure she didn't look back. Tou were never supposed to look back.

Harir held his breath in alarm as he saw the blood spread out over Sliet's arm, he tried to hold on and keep his head low and the horse pushed on faster and they broke through the lines. He heard several more gunshots, farther away now, and wondered if they'd made it seconds before he felt something like a hammer slam into his him. He let out a short yelp, numb and as he almost lost his grip. He said nothing as they rushed on, trying to bare the panic and stay on the horse as the ache spread through his back.When they slowed, getting out of sight and range of the lines, he wearily spoke up, his voice wavering. "Sliet?...I think I got shot." He said flatly, woozy with the pain and shock.

"Sliet had started to relax, relieved that they were relatively alright, her arm would be fine in a little while. That had been stupid, but it had paid off. She looked back with golden eyes, torn between fear and shock at Harir's words as they slowed. Was a clean getaway really too much to ask. "What do you mean you THINK you got shot?" She asked, confused as to why she was so worried and afraid for him.

Last edited by melodiousmysteries on Tue Jun 09, 2015 7:45 am; edited 1 time in total

He glanced at her as she looked back. "My back-" He got out, attempting to get off the horse. He could feel hot blood soaking the back of his coat but couldn't see or reach it. He winced as he started to get to his feet, and his head swam briefly before he toppled the rest of the way off of the saddle next to the horse's hooves, groaning. He started to pick himself up but remained sitting on the dead grass and snow languidly and glanced up at Sliet again with a pained expression, not knowing what to do or think at the moment.

Terror gripped her heart whe he fell out of the saddle, cursing and jumping off after him. He didn't look too good. "You have to tell me when this shit happens " she hissed, frustrated. She crouched beside him and looked at his back to asses the damage and all colour drained from her face. Damn that was a lot of blood. It took her a moment to shake off the shock, trying to react as calmly as she could. "Come on, we need to get your jacket and stuff off so i can take care of it, okay?" She half ordered, making sure he understood.

"I didn't want to distract you- we couldn't stop before now anyway." Harir replied tiredly. He was quiet and remained still as she went around to check the damage. When she told him to take off his jacket, he took a moment to respond and unbuttoned the coat, pulling it off with restricted motions. He winced as the fabric pulled away from the wound, worsening the bleeding. He tried to see her from over is shoulder, uncertain. "Is it bad?" He asked, his voice slurring a little as he started to shiver from the cold. He managed to stay sitting upright for a few moments but kept leaning to one side, his eyelids drooping.

"Oh no you don't. Hey hey hey! Come on. Youre going to be fine, but you have to stay awake for me okay?" She lied. Sliet really had no idea if he would be alright, but irpt was certain thatnif she didn't do something and fast, he would die. She lifted her hands to the hole in his back, gritting her teeth when she moved her injured arm. This was going to take a few minutes and she wasnt sjre she had that long. "Why don't you just keep talking? " she asked, starting to numb the area, as long as he was talking she knew he was concious. "You know how I ended up in the military, what about you?"

Harir tried to stay quiet as Sliet told him to stay awake and went to his back. He coughed into his sleeve and it came away dark. He didn't say anything to Sliet; she was just going to get more worried, but he felt sort of scared in all honestly. He blinked as she asked him how he had gotten into the military. He felt a sort of wariness for some reason, but his normal caution was gone at the moment, along with his energy, and he didn't see why he shouldn't say anything. "..I wanted to be with my brother. He looked after me most of my life until he'd signed up- wanted to repay what the federation did for us after our parents..." He trailed off for a moment, frowning. "So I signed up when I was sixteen. He was already a Captain.. he was really driven, sort of too much..." Normally he wouldn't have said something like that. He hadn't even confided in his brother how scared he was by the other's blind patriotism. "..So I was able to become his lieutenant. We didn't do much besides training and meetings, nothing in the field. He... he was killed, so- that's why you were brought in, I guess." He told her. It wasn't really an interesting or important story. As she numbed his back he relaxed a bit and slumped back a little, and while the shock started to fade, he felt more exhausted, and couldn't really pull in a full breath.

Sliet felt like something had shocked her."why I was brought in?" She asked, horrified with herself. There was no way that they would have done something like that to get her in... was there? "What happened to him? " she asked, voice shaking. Realizing what she was doing, she refocused on healing his shoulder. The consequences would be dire otherwise. She closed her eyes, feeling the wound beneath her fingers slowly close, but kt would take even longer to fix the internal damage.

Harir frowned at her question, growing somber, he hesitated a moment before replying, looking down. "He was killed in camp by a traitor- they thought. He was there one night, and then he wasn't." Harir's voice broke a little, his compopsure and censoring gone from the pain and adrenaline. "We'd had a fight after a meeting he had, and I stormed off and left him out there..." Harir trailed off for a moment before going on. "They found him the next morning with his throat cut where I'd left him... If I'd stayed, maybe... I don't know." He muttered, his eyes shut as he held still for Sliet.

Sliet shivered at the realization of qhat they had had to do- no. What they had done to get her in there. This was a problem. A huge, Huge problem. But she would deal with it later, she decided, snapping herself back into focus before she could falter. She remained silent as she worked, not sure what to say. She pulled her hands away once she had finished standing and taking a step back. She felt exhausted, the wound in her own arm still not completely healed due to her using her energy to fix Harir 's back. She didn't think she could sleep if she tried though, she had to figure out what to do about this. Maybe she could get away with waiting until they got back and discussing it with whoever had arranged it, assuming they were there. It was definitely something to consider.she looked her friend up and down with a mixture of pity, pain, worry, abd shame for ever being so naive , hoping she had done enough.

Harir got a hold of himself as Sliet remained quiet. He wondered if he shouldn't have said anything, if he'd been to open and made things uncomfortable. As she moved back, he noticed her arm, after pausing for a moment, he rummaged tiredly through his pack to find bandages and glanced at her, gesturing for her to sit beside him. "Here.. I"ll get your arm." He said quietly. It would be easier to do it for her than her try to do it with one hand.

Sliet considered it for a moment before sitting down, propping her arm up on her knee so he could get to it. "It's going to heal on its own before too long anyway, " she said, pouting at the idea of him thinking she needed help.

Harir shrugged. "I know...but, it'll at least stop the bleeding... save you some energy." He murmered, wrapping her arm carefully with the bandages before pulling her sleeve back over them. "There." He was quiet for a moment, glancing up at her.

He kept an eye out for other soldiers as they searched for shelter. By the time they reached a small, decrepit stone and wood house standing on it's own and long abandoned, he was freezing and more than ready to sleep. The inside held off the wind, but was nothing more than frozen dirt, scattered with snow from where the roof had given out in one corner. Exhausted, he collapsed, laying on the icy ground and not moving. He was shivering violently- the area down the back of his coat frozen stiff from the blood, but tried to bare it and sleep.

She watched Harir collapse in silence, too tired even to chew him out properly. She grabbed the blankets from their packs, draping one over him and tucking him in as best as she could with numb fingers. Once finished, she grabbed herown blanket and curlef up in what seemed to be the least frozen spot in the building, at least thats what she told herself.

Harir blinked as Sliet put the blanket over him, regaining some consciousness. He considered it for a moment, how she was being towards him. "Sliet..why are you helping me?" He asked quietly. "You don't need me out here. If anything I'm slowing you down." He added, pulling the blanket closer

Sliet groaned and shifted under her blanket, just wanting ro sleep. "Cause s'my fault." She slurred, already half asleep and barely consious that she was speaking, let alone of what she was saying. That question was difficult to answer, she had her reasond, but they were hard to admit ro herself, and definitely not to anyone else. But many things were her fault, anx ahe especially blamed herself for the things that happened to him. He had followed Her that night, She had dragged him into all of this, she was responsible for him now as far as she was concerned. In fact, if she had never shown up, he might still have a brother.

Harir said nothing. He wasn't sure who was at fault for all this, what he had chosen and what had been inevitable. He was too tired to care, and remained silent until he drifted off to sleep.

He woke up suddenly in the middle of the night. He was so cold he could barely move but fought the urge to sleep again. He felt something was wrong and when he finally forced himself to sit up he could barely feel his arms and legs. He glanced over at sliet, his breath clouding in the air. Desperate, he inched over until he was sitting beside her. "Liet- I'mb gonna layb here, okay?" He asked through numb limps, trembling.

Sliet shifted in her sleep, squinting up at him through the darkness. " i think... your lips are blue."she mumlbed sleepily. Rolling over onto her side and lifting up the blanket for him to crawl in, shivering as the cold air came in.

Harir didn't think twice before throwing the second blanket over them and laying down. He nestled against her awkwardly. He certainly hadn't had to do this in the army, and as cold as he was he was a little uncomfortable to be pressed up against his captain like that. Still, the warmth was nice, and it overtook him as he drifted back to sleep.

When he woke again there was light through the hole in the roof, and he blinked sleepily and without thinking tried to get closer to the warmth, which happened to be Sliet. He barely remembered the night before other than giving up on staying warm, and felt a sudden sense of embarrassment and awkwardness. At the same time, he didn't really want to get up into the cold air.

Sliet snored softly, pressed about as close as she could get to the other source of heat, unknowing, and really uncaring, as to what it was. Feeling the other move, her eyes snapped open, now wide awake from the surprise. She rolled over, looking at harir in confusion but didnt pull away. "How long have you been there? "She asked as evenly as possible. It wasnt really that she minded it, this was the warmest she had been in days, and the first time in a while shed slept without nightmares, she just wanted to know how hed gotten there without her noticing, having no recollection [f the night before.

Harir's eyes widened as she turned to face him and he sat up quickly, moving back as she questioned him. "Last night-" He sputtered, alarmed. Had he imagined it? Or had she been talking in her sleep? "It was freezing-I asked if I could lay down, to-for warmth- y-you-" He broke off from his stuttering, looking down and away to hide his obvious embarrassment. "S-sorry." He got up quickly, avoiding her gaze and and folding up the blanket as he shivered again from the sudden chill.